


Apple Sauce

by Nook Sundry (Sundering)



Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Tamers
Genre: Drama, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Multi, One Shot Collection, Other, Romance, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2017-09-30
Packaged: 2019-01-07 07:00:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12227916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sundering/pseuds/Nook%20Sundry
Summary: Stuff and nonsense. Tamers; Impmon/Beelzemon x Jeri Katou.





	1. Special Delivery

**Author's Note:**

> **Apple Sauce:** _Baloney, Nonsense [Slang, Informal; Early 20th century]_
> 
>  **i. Special Delivery:** A quick oneshot set in the immediate aftermath of the Digimon's return to the real world, post-series; referencing and inspired by the Tamers Drama CD: _Message in a Packet_ *. Someone has a quick stop-off to make on his way home ...

It was a blustery evening in late October when a visitor called by the restaurant after hours, claiming to have a package for a Miss Jeri Katou. He was roughly eight and a half feet tall and had interesting taste in headgear.

Her face white above her checkered pajamas, Jeri had stumbled out the door before her father had a chance to slam it shut and alert the police, or maybe the military. Speechless, he and his wife could only watch as the behemoth handed off a nondescript cardboard box, his demeanor an almost comically polite contrast to his initial bravado.

Complimenting this exchange there was a brief and equally befuddling conversation; something about a delay, computer jargon, some sort of boat (" _Ark?_ ") ride, and there was somebody who'd worn themself out, apparently - although that could have been a joke, because Jeri peered into the box and laughed at that, breathlessly. After that the stranger turned to make his exit, but the little girl stopped him just long enough to ask about a letter or a message of some sort, and whether it had gotten wherever it was supposed to go. Red-faced and suddenly tongue tied, their visitor mumbled that it had, and something else that may have been a thank you, but she only smiled.

And then he was off, his great dark wings rattling the wind chimes on the porch, and Jeri went back inside, and there was a ball of snoozing white fuzz in the box, and that night, for once, she slept undisturbed.

 

**fin  
**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * _Message in a Packet_ , the CD Drama set one year after the series finale, can be found here: http://digitalscratch.pmsinfirm.org/436. If you haven't checked it out yet - or Jeri's section, at the very least, this fic ... probably won't make much sense, lol.


	2. 50/50

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Apple Sauce:** _Baloney, Nonsense [Slang, Informal; Early 20th Century]_
> 
>  **ii. 50/50:** One hundred divided by two divided by two; a series of single-sentence prompt responses completed for LJ's 50foryou challenge. Pre- and Post-Series; there's even one set right after the clash with Locomon if you can spot it!

**01) Program:** Though the D-Reaper destroyed, it did so only because that was what it had been programmed to do - he, unfortunately, had no such excuse.

 **02) Ironic:** 'Sooo,' he drawled, dropping bonelessly into the seat next to her as if they were in the midst of another lazy afternoon in the park and not Ai's wedding reception, 'Your brother and my Tamer, huh?'

 **03) Cerulean:** Sometimes Jeri swore she could see flashes of _blue_ in his eyes.

 **04) Rabble:** Looking down on them from his tree, he couldn't have told the chick with the sock puppet from the goofball with the stupid hat; brainless, gibbering pests, the lot of 'em.

 **05) Hold:** 'Oh, I'm fine,' she bleated, prying her fingernails out of his jacket, 'Just … let me know the next time you take off like that.'

 **06) Sight:** He'd know her a mile away at this point, green dress or no.

 **07) Farm:** She didn't resist when Beelzemon fell back to shepherd her and the twins out of range of the fight, if only because she knew it was her safety he was more concerned about than her being a liability.

 **08) Easy:** " _Piece o' cake_ ," he assured himself, right before she smiled at him and every coherent thought danced out of his head.

 **09) Control:** Yes he was brave, he was strong and he was (mostly) true, but sometimes he made it awfully hard not to crack blonde jokes.

 **10) Chick:** 'Hey, I'm not the one with the feathers,' she reminded him, and couldn't help but laugh at the look on his face.

 **11) Knot:** He knew there was a name for the weird ball of tension in his stomach that seemed to develop whenever Takato held her hand, and it probably wasn't _Indigestion_.

 **12) Fringe:** 'Beelzemon sure is funny sometimes,' Calumon opined, but Jeri only smiled and tickled him under the chin with the end of a long dark plume.

 **13) Storm:** 'What am I, a tarp?' he grumbled, adjusting his wings more securely over her head.

 **14) Neutral:** He couldn't change the past, he'd come to terms with that; and if the price of what he'd done was to live knowing he was a monster, he'd pay it ten times over, gladly.

 **15) Vision:** Sometimes he still dreamt of frightened children and fallen warriors; those were usually the days when she'd find him sitting outside her window at odd hours.

 **16) Poniard:** Jeri could never quite bring herself to tell him that, for all the pain it caused her, he might as well have just skipped Leomon and run _her_ through instead.

 **17) Trust:** It was somewhere in between the casual encounters on the way home from cram school and a dozen or so cocky but nonetheless heroic displays that she realized the little terror had actually won her over.

 **18) Savage:** Sometimes he wished he could just forget the confrontation outside the Southern Gate, but then he only had to look at the twins, at the Tamers - and one in particular - to know that'd be doing more than just himself a dishonor.

 **19) Murder:** " _Absorbed his data_ " was a little too vague for Beelzemon's tastes.

 **20) Jeer:** She didn't have the heart to tease him after Behemoth got totaled for the third time in less than a year … although it _was_ getting kind of funny at this point.

 **21) Bunch:** When Calumon explained why he'd seen her laying flowers down by the fountain in the park, he kind of wished he hadn't asked.

 **22) Chinchilla:** It wasn't until she started making yipping noises that it dawned on him it was supposed to be a _dog_.

 **23) Change:** Two or ten feet tall, he was still a brat.

 **24) Hero:** When she called Gallantmon off, she'd saved him in more ways than one, and he wasn't ever about to forget that.

 **25) Beehive:** The Wild Bunch sometimes used the term in reference to the D-Reaper's occupation of the city, and he supposed it made sense, but then it made him think of unpleasant things like _nests_ and _swarms_ … and that wasn't even touching on the _queen_ trapped at the heart of the nightmare.

 **26) Exclude:** Once, when the Tamers leapt into action, Impmon thought he recognized the expression that flickered across her face and it pained him, least of all because he knew what it was to feel left out.

 **27) Bow:** 'Kid, I'm gonna develop a hump here,' he teased, but she wouldn't let go of his helmet straps until she'd extracted his promise to come back in one piece.

 **28) Fur:** It only really occurred to her that she'd reached out to fondle his ears comfortingly around about the same time he realized he was leaning into the contact, at which point it got kind of awkward.

 **29) Free:** 'Sorry, pal,' he gloated, trailing up the stairs behind her, 'What we got here's a Creampuff-Free Zone.'

 **30) Miffed:** Impmon did _not_ appreciate being referred to as "cute" or "sweet" or "adorable" and she could understand that … but there were times when he made it awfully difficult not to.

 **31) Muscle:** For all his obvious strength, he was so painstakingly careful when he opened his arms to the twins that it made her think of Leomon, and though it wasn't without a pang still, Jeri was truly glad to see in them yet another assurance that his passing hadn't been in vain.

 **32) Pan:** It was one thing having Calumon poke his nose in when she was trying to make breakfast; a ten-foot-tall hell-for-leather type on wings was definitely incentive to overdo the eggs a little.

 **33) Prance:** 'You don't ...' she gasped, adjusting as he eased his grip, 'dance around these things, do you?'

 **34) Impatience:** There was brash, there was hasty ... and then there was Beelzemon.

 **35) Ace:** Jeri, he soon learned, had an almost frightening knack for reading those around her; but whether he was more impressed or intimidated by this Impmon really couldn't tell.

 **36) Brick:** As much as telling Terriermon to watch his mouth was probably a glib move, Jeri was pretty sure telling Impmon to do so was about the verbal equivalent of bashing one's head repeatedly against a brick wall.

 **37) Add:** On the field she became as much his priority as Ai or Mako, as far as he was concerned.

 **38) Sneer:** To see him sprawled in the shade with Guilmon and the others, it was hard to recall a time when he turned his nose up at every friendly overture offered him.

 **39) Spice:** Things _did_ tend to get that much more interesting once he showed up, there was no arguing that.

 **40) Puny:** The plan was relatively simple enough (open wings, fly) but the moment she clambered up into his arms he was so excruciatingly aware of how small she was that he barely knew what to do with himself.

 **41) Opposition:** 'Didn't no one ever tell you it's rude to interrupt when people are tryin' to talk?' he hissed, elbowing the little catalyst once Jeri had left the room, and then promptly had to clamp his hands over Calumon's mouth before he got squealed on.

 **42) Ribbon:** 'I'm, ah … not too good at this whole birthday thing,' Impmon mumbled gruffly, but the yellow ribbon was already in her hair before he'd finished speaking.

 **43) Princess:** Okay, so a biker and a creampuff weren't exactly your typical knights in shining armor, but heck if they weren't storming that castle anyways.

 **44) Gentile:** Impmon had an uncanny knack for doing nice things without drawing attention to the fact, she noticed.

 **45) Party:** 'I, heh, realize we might be kinda early,' the Mega hedged, a grinning little girl in one arm and a sheepish looking lop-eared Rookie in the other.

 **46) Diligent:** ' _Stubborn_ , you mean,' Renamon deadpanned, and he did his best to ignore the amusement in Jeri's eyes, and the burning in his cheeks.

 **47) Inordinate:** If he was ever a little less obnoxious, or a little more careful about what came out of his mouth when she was around, the Tamers were kind enough to keep their thoughts on this phenomenon to themselves.

 **48) Concave:** '… Anybody home in there?' Jeri smiled, rapping lightly on his crownspiece.

 **49) Pimple:** 'Well, Ai's at a difficult age now,' she commiserated … although if _she_ were a fourteen year old Tamer and Impmon had had the audacity poke her in the chin and ask " _Who's your friend?_ " Jeri was pretty sure she would have thrown him out of the room as well.

 **50) Win:** Walking away from the fight with Gallantmon wasn't what hurt the most; it was more like the realization that, in the end, the only one who'd lost was an innocent little girl.

 

**fin  
**

 


	3. Nothings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Apple Sauce:** _Baloney, Nonsense [Slang, Informal; Early 20th Century]_
> 
>  **iii. Nothings:** (Post Ep. 36) To the victor goes the _spoils_ ... so to speak.

He remembers it feeling like a curtain pulled, or a veil being lifted. Sudden, startling - _whoosh_ \- and the cold coming in; the horrible, slow creep of understanding.

There's a little girl in front of him and she's crying, _she can't stop crying_ , and he's done something wrong. Something _horribly_ wrong, something ... something he can't ever take back.

Something unforgivable.

And he knows it, _feels_ _it_ with every inch of him, with every long and empty mile of the Digital World his feet swallow up in the aftermath. Day turns into night turns into day. Streams of data skirt his path. His head hurts and his bruises ache but it doesn't matter, none of it matters. By rights he shouldn't even _have_ a head to hurt, forget the bruises. Gallantmon - Guilmon and Takato - they should've made a shish kebab out of him, _he'd had it coming_ , and right now he can't even tell if he's glad that they didn't.

Right now he can't even tell if biting the big one would have been so much worse than _this_ …

It's all going around in circles in his head; everything, around and around without ever really getting anywhere. And no matter how many times he relives the whole sorry mess, there's no one thing, no one point to home in on and say for sure that ' _That's_ where it all went wrong.' There's no one else he can blame or be angry with but himself. There's no pretending that nothing makes sense, because it does; it all makes horrible sense, and for every " _this wasn't supposed to happen_ " or " _but I never meant to-_ " there's another awful truth, another picture scrawled across his synapses. Kyuubimon, struggling to pick herself up off the ground. The _rage_ in Growlmon's eyes.

And _her_ face, over and over again.

He tries to think of other things, brighter things, but even they begin to knot him up from the inside out. Harmless things like crayons and cartons of juice, like sticky little fingers and tiny-toothed smiles. They _hurt_. He can't think about them without thinking of the littlest Tamer cowering behind her big brother. He can't think about them without remembering the one he destroyed just for being brave and strong and honorable ( _for showing him up like that_ ). He can't think about them anymore without wondering what it would be like, how it might _feel_ … to lose them forever.

He can't think about them without seeing _her face_.

It's too bright here. The wind's picking up. There's a roaring in his ears and a void where his chest should be and he can see them now, all of them. Ai and Mako, Guilmon and Renamon and Terriermon, their partners and their friends, Calumon and the Devas, Leomon and the Tamer that was. A shifting cloud of faces, and he can't see one without seeing another. He can't see Guilmon sharing his bread without seeing Calumon trying to dodge a _Bada Boom_. He can't see the Tamers playing games in the park without seeing them frantically trying to regroup outside the Southern Gate. He can't see Ai and Mako's faces now without seeing his fist, and the hole in Leomon's stomach, and that kid _begging_ Gallantmon to stay his hand.

To _spare_ him.

To let him just walk away.

… After everything he'd done.

And he should probably be grateful. Seeing as he killed her partner and all and she was nice enough to blame _herself_ more than she blamed the nut job who rammed a fist through his stomach and then absorbed every last trace of him, but with a head so full of echoes and everything else so full of this power that isn't even his there's very little room left for gratitude … much less anything else.

But then what can he do; he's got everything he ever wanted now, right?

Everything he deserves …

_A whole lot of nothing._

 

**fin  
**

 


	4. Dandelion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Apple Sauce:** _Baloney, Nonsense [Slang, Informal; Early 20th Century]_
> 
>  **iv. Dandelion:** Some gifts are worth more than they seem.

It was shaping up to be one heck of a shindig, alright.

There were noisemakers and doggie bags, music and streamers, games, gifts, peaches and cream, and more friends and family members than a three-tiered birthday cake could handle. Rika called it "Payback." Everyone else called it a surprise party.

An elaborate conspiracy between the Tamers (who did the running around), their partners (who ran diversions, as needed), and the occasional parent (who ran handy things like restaurants, and bakeries), the whole thing had been in the works for _weeks_.

And, apparently, it had taken him all of maybe five seconds to ruin everything.

Renamon found him first, of course. She had a knack for finding him in various unflattering emotional states.

'What's the matter?'

Impmon had to think about the question for a minute. It had happened so fast, after all, he still wasn't sure … 'I think I made Jeri cry,' he concluded, finally.

Her tail moved once, and then stilled. The fox stared at him. '… What?'

The smaller critter shook his head. 'I didn't know it was such a big deal.' He looked down at his hands and squeezed them into fists, and then relaxed them when it did nothing to make him feel any better.

There must have been something on his face she didn't like; Renamon turned, searching the smiling faces and moving bodies milling about the Katou's living room, but the birthday girl was nowhere to be seen.

'I couldn't think of anything else,' he mumbled, helplessly. He knew it wasn't much. But he never would have expected that _look_ , much less the glassy eyes - and the fumbling, slightly damp peck on the cheek? His fur still stood on end just thinking about it. ' … It was just a _flower_.'

Renamon blinked. 'A flower?' she echoed curiously. Impmon nodded, his throat oddly constricted. She eyed him for a moment, and looked over her shoulder again, just in time to see Jeri re-enter the room modeling her new terrycloth lion knapsack, a cheery yellow flower tucked behind her left ear and a wide, watery smile.

He never could figure out what Foxface found so funny about it, afterwards.

 

**fin  
**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if Jeri's (or any of the Tamers) birth dates were ever mentioned, but this little interlude is set a short while after _Runaway Locomon_ ... hence Rika's "Payback" comment.


	5. You Could Be My Luck (Even If The Sky Is Falling Down)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Apple Sauce:** _Baloney, Nonsense [Slang, Informal; Early 20th Century]_
> 
>  **v. You Could Be My Luck (Even If The Sky Is Falling Down):** Storm's a brewin'!

Shinjuku shimmered in the rain.

Her card binder clutched to her chest, Jeri walked with her head down, trying to remember hearing anything about sudden torrential onslaughts being mentioned on TV that morning. She passed a cluster of people sheltering under the grocers awnings, and peered left and right before chancing a dash across the road. Her socks seemed to absorb half of the puddles she splashed through before she reached the other side of the street.

Maybe she should have let Rika loan her that umbrella after all …

The downpour kicked up a notch, as if in agreement. She turned right at the corner and narrowly avoided colliding with a group of grade school-aged girls, shrieking gleefully as they ran for cover. Belatedly, Jeri realized she might have done better ducking onto the _opposite_ side of the pavement; it was all she could do turn away as a truck rumbled past, soaking the hem of her skirt as it hugged the curb. A few pedestrians smiled at her sympathetically in passing.

"… Aw, _nuts_." She pulled a face and tried to unstick her skirt from her knees.

Well, she probably couldn't get any wetter at this point. Jeri focused on the thought of warm, dry socks and hurried on. A bowl of her dad's noodle soup wouldn't go down so bad, either … The intersection was fairly quiet when she reached it, and, spotting the dark green smudge of the park through the haze, she made a split-second decision and stopped at the lights. For a shortcut, the route through the park wasn't all that short, but there was more cover at least.

At least, in theory. Jogging through the entrance, Jeri was a little tempted to stop and stick out her hand, just to see if the rain was falling _up_ as much as it was falling _down_. It sure felt like it, anyway. The rumble of traffic receded under the hiss of the rain battering the trees as she moved further in. The fountain and the bike-racks stood deserted. Guilmon's old hideout looked cold and miserable; with any luck the big guy was curled up somewhere nice and warm in the Matsuki residence … Just the thought of somewhere cozy and indoors spurred her on, and she broke into a run.

And Jeri would have run non-stop from there all the way home if that one crooked paving stone hadn't gotten in the way. But she didn't see it coming - she could barely see much of anything, through the rain - and the fall was pretty spectacular. It might have been an eight-out-of-ten if the binder hadn't gotten in the way of the ground and her face. Picking herself up carefully and testing a slightly tender ankle, she spotted the looming silhouette of the dinosaur clock a little way off and limped towards it.

The damp had crept a little way into the crawlspace, but she chose the driest spot she could find and gingerly hunkered down, setting her binder down beside her. It looked a little beat up from the fall, but it wasn't anything to worry about; the cards inside were sealed in waterproof plastic. Now if only she could say the same for herself …

Her left knee was bleeding slightly, and on closer inspection Jeri found a nasty looking graze on the heel of her palm. The ankle throbbed a little but held up alright under her weight; she peeled her sock down to check for any swelling, just to be safe. Everything looked fine apart from a little redness, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

'Well, would you look what the Gatomon dragged in!'

The voice startled her, familiar though it was. Jeri had to look twice before she recognized the face peering down at her over the edge of the crawlspace.

'Impmon? What are you …' She paused. 'Were you up there the whole time?'

'I, uh, I might have been. I wasn't sleeping or nothing, if that's what you're thinking,' he added, a tad defensively.

'If you say so,' Jeri smiled. 'What were you doing, then?'

'Oh, just … hanging out.' The critter swung down from his perch, holding on for a second (just long enough to grin cheesily) before dropping to the ground. 'You?'

'Ah, I just wanted to get out of the rain for a second.'

'Huh?' He turned. 'Well, would you look at that!'

'I wouldn't - go out there if I were you,' she murmured, a little too late. Impmon peered back at her curiously, the downpour quickly turning his coat a shade darker.

'Why not?'

'You'll be soaked!'

Impmon shrugged cheerfully, raindrops dangling off his ears. 'A little water won't hurt me.'

'Oh.' She blinked. 'I guess Digimon don't really have to worry about catching colds, huh?'

'Not really.' The critter frowned as she groped for a handkerchief in her purse. 'Don't you have, like, a coat you can wear, or something?'

'Of course I do.' She paused to blow her nose. '… At home.'

'Well it ain't gonna do you any good there, is it?' Jeri frowned at him, but Impmon only grinned, and the rain poured down all the harder around him. He ducked out of sight before she could think of a retort, and she heard the scratch of his claws as he scrabbled up the side of the dinosaur. Muttering to herself, she tucked her handkerchief away and stared glumly out at the downpour battering the trees.

A sudden flash made her start, and her heart sank. Jeri braced herself for the first peal of thunder, but it never came - a pair of massive boots hit the ground outside the shelter instead.

She gaped at them for a minute, before gathering her wits enough to shuffle closer to the archway and peer outside.

Someone stuck a large, clawed hand out in front of her. 'Need a lift?'

Jeri blinked at the hand, and leaned out of the slide's shelter to stare up at its owner. He grinned down at her. Bemused, she reached out and let him help her up; in the time it took for her to get to her feet, she was twice as wet as before. Beelzemon, despite looking a little like a drowned crow, seemed no less bothered by the rain than his shorter, fuzzier self had been. Jeri eyed him curiously as she plucked at her skirt.

'… "Lift?"'

He cleared his throat. 'If you want. I mean,' Beelzemon shrugged elaborately, 'you can walk, sure, but … I know a shortcut.'

If she'd been looking elsewhere Jeri wouldn't have seen the change coming, but watching Beelzemon fumble and clown around like he wasn't being sweet was always fun - and she knew the signs by this point. The Mode Change started at his eyes, all three of them, all suddenly bright bottle green; and ended with the wings mantled behind him. The arm cannon was the only no-show, but Jeri figured there were better choices of umbrella.

A gust pressed a hank of sopping hair against her cheek. 'I think I might take you up on that,' she mumbled, shivering. She pretended she didn't see him brighten a little like he sometimes did, like it still surprised him that Jeri might accept his help, or anything else Beelzemon might offer. Jeri hummed, thoughtfully. 'And, you know, I think there might even be a bowl of noodles in it for you.'

Beelzemon assumed the wide-eyed, guileless look of puppies offered toys or treats everywhere. 'And dumplings?'

Jeri groaned a little at the thought and grinned helplessly. 'I sure hope so. Just a minute,' she added, holding up a hand to stall while she fetched her card binder. 'I'd hate to leave these behind - _ah_!' Jeri hissed and caught herself against the leg of the dinosaur when her ankle protested the sudden bending and straightening.

'Whoah, hey, easy!' Beelzemon dropped into a squat in front of her, his expression gone slack with surprise, arms extended awkwardly. 'You okay there?'

'I'm fine, it's fine!' Jeri gestured at her scraped knees, embarrassed. 'I kind of ... got into a fight with gravity and lost.'

' _Tch_.' Beelzemon raked the war wounds with a narrow-eyed look. 'Well hey, don't beat yourself up about it; gravity fights dirty.' He offered Jeri a hand, taking great (and obvious) pains to be slow and non-threatening about it. 'Alright, so, uh - how's about we get this show on the road?'

Jeri beamed. 'Sounds good to me!' She let him shepherd her away from the dinosaur clock and held on where he told her to hold on; Beelzemon rose to standing carefully, streaming with water and creaking with leather, and turned to get his bearings. Jeri shifted in the crook of his arm, testing her range of movement curiously. She paused when he looked down at her and smiled suddenly.

'Let's do this! Jeri Vs. Gravity, round two! I like your odds this time, kid,' he added conspiringly, and a little encouragingly.

'Me too,' she wanted to say, and tried to say, but Beelzemon took a running start and leapt into the air with all four wings spread, trailing feathers and Jeri's startled laughter instead.

The rain cheerily continued to sluice down the city in their wake.

 

**fin**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was (kind of obviously? IDK) the start of a very old and much larger story that I can only find fragments of on my hard drive and can only guess at where it was going, but I cropped it here and tidied it up a little because I'm still so compelled by this dynamic, and these two _need_ more content going for them GDI.
> 
> Title courtesy of Capital Cities' _Safe and Sound._


End file.
